{"id":198667,"date":"2024-05-31T11:45:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T21:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=198667"},"modified":"2024-05-31T11:45:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T21:45:24","slug":"mental-health-hawaii-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/05\/31\/mental-health-hawaii-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Promoting mental health for Hawai\u02bbi farmers wins award from the community"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

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Nearly 50% of farmers in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> under the age of 46 have suffered from experiences of depression, and nearly 14% with suicidal thoughts, according to a study published in 2023 by the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources<\/a> (CTAHR<\/abbr>). Agriculture is a high-stress enterprise with lots of risks and uncertainties, including volatile markets, fluctuating weather, invasive species and other stressors that agriculture producers must contend with on a daily and seasonal basis.<\/p>\n

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Ag mentorship training<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Due to high rates of stress, depression and suicide among this demographic, CTAHR<\/abbr> developed Seeds of Wellbeing<\/a> (SOW<\/abbr>) with original funding support from the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Agriculture\/USDA<\/abbr>–NIFA<\/abbr> in fall 2021 to promote better mental health for those who work in the agriculture industry. SOW<\/abbr> provides workshops and educational materials in multiple languages to equip individuals with practical skills for managing stress and promoting mental well-being. SOW<\/abbr> also conducts cutting-edge research, producing podcasts that have garnered more than 2,000 downloads, and 1,000 Instagram followers.<\/p>\n

For its efforts, SOW<\/abbr> was honored with the Outstanding Community Mental Health Leader award by Mental Health America Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> in May.<\/p>\n

“This award validates our dedication and commitment to promoting mental health awareness and support within Â鶹´«Ã½’s<\/span> agricultural communities,” said Thao Le, CTAHR<\/abbr> professor and chair of the Family Consumer Sciences department, and SOW<\/abbr> director. “This recognition highlights the effectiveness of our initiatives from the community in addressing mental health challenges and fostering resilience for our farmers and ranchers.”<\/p>\n

Building social connection to address mental health challenges<\/h2>\n

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SOW<\/abbr> developed the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Ag Mental Health Mentorship Program<\/a> which has trained more than 60 ag mentors to serve as community connector and ag mental health navigator, and is seeking additional funding to expand its program and across the Pacific. Guam, for instance, has reached out and is also interested in replicating SOW<\/abbr>\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

“We remain steadfast in destigmatizing mental challenges by bolstering social connection and social capital,” said Le.<\/p>\n

SOW<\/abbr> collaborates with the Western Region Agricultural Stress Assistance Program, a partnership with 13 states and four territories, Safe States Alliance, and Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Health, Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention System Branch, along with other organizations to leverage resources and expertise.<\/p>\n

“The effectiveness of what we do depends on the relationships we build, cultivate, and nurture, so that no one feels alone in their struggles,” said Le.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 50% of farmers in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> under the age of 46 have suffered from experiences of depression, and nearly 14% with suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[222,212,1420,1157,9],"class_list":["post-198667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-agriculture","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-family-and-consumer-sciences","tag-mental-health","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198667"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198688,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198667\/revisions\/198688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}